Thursday, August 22, 2019

Who knew that free cards were Nextdoor?

Image result for nextdoor
I don't know how many of you have signed up for Nextdoor, but I did a while ago after hearing that it was a decent resource for neighborhood news, buying and selling, and the like.  While it does sometimes bring its share of (easily ignored drama), I like checking it once in a while, especially the "for sale and free" section.

After missing out on such a deal last year, about a month ago I quickly responded to a listing for "free sports cards" at an address in the neighborhood across the street from mine, roughly a five minute walk away.  As luck would have it, I was fast enough to claim this offer, so I headed over for the traditional porch pickup.

Here's a look at what I grabbed:
Hmmm, a paper shopping bag full of boxes, interesting!  It ended up being a big bunch of (mostly) basketball sets, almost all of which were complete.  I had a lot of fun going through each, verifying there were indeed complete, and eyeballing the designs.  While I'm not a big collector of the sport, a few of these might be keepers for me.

Here's a quick rundown, including representative fronts and backs, for what I landed here (with a pretty obvious theme):

1990-91 Fleer:  complete set

1991-92 Fleer (including Update):  complete set + second complete Update set

1991-92 Skybox II:  complete set

1993 Classic Basketball Draft:  missing one card

1993 Classic Four Sport:  missing 23 cards

1993-94 Hoops (I and II):  complete set + second series II set

1993-94 Jam Session:  complete set

1993-94 Skybox II:  complete set

1993-94 Ultra II:  complete set

1994-95 Fleer II:  complete set

1994-95 Hoops II:  two complete sets

1995-96 Hoops I:  two complete sets

I want to make a few quick points:

1. The lady I got these from was super nice, a collector (of many things besides cards) herself who was clearing things out as she prepared to move.

2. I felt much safer meeting up with someone through something like Nextdoor, which is local to your area, meaning it's probably less sketchy than Facebook (not to mention Craigslist).

3. There's a fun mix of designs here!  The Jam Session cards are the coolest to me as they were part of Fleer's oddly sized design across multiple sports around then--I'm sure many of you baseball guys recall "Extra Bases".

4.  All of the duplicate sets, 91-92 Fleer Update, 93-94 Hoops II, 94-95 Hoops II, and 95-96 Hoops I, are all available for trade.  I may make some of the others available as well, but haven't decided yet.  Make me an offer!

5.  All of the scans you see above were done with my new ScanSnap ix500 automatic document feed scanner that I grabbed for a nice deal through Facebook Marketplace.  I may do a future post on it for those who'd be interested.  It was super easy to scan the fronts and backs of all 12 cards you see above, and I recently scanned almost 1600 family photos in probably under three hours to give you an idea of its utility.

6.  Yes, I'm already working on finishing up those two sets, hopefully with the help of the usually reliable Sportlots, so stay tuned.

For those of you who haven't found a fun social media deal like this, keep your eyes peeled as they do pop up from time to time!

14 comments:

  1. Looks like a lot of fun. That Glen Rice Skybox is something. Else.

    I'm assuming the Jordan in the 1990-91 Fleer set? That card is sooo sweet.

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    1. Yeah, in some cases here I grabbed subset cards because they looked cooler! And correct, the Jordan was included in that set.

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  2. I've been on nextdoor for a long time, I even check it most days. I never thought to look for cards in that section. I never even look at that section. Boy do I feel like a dumbass now, thanks!

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    1. I keep an eye out once in a while, mainly because like I mentioned here I missed out on some free cards last year. Plus they're likely a lot closer than what I might find on Facebook.

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  3. Wow, that's a nice haul of freebies! '91-92 Skybox and '93-94 Ultra are personal faves.

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    1. Thanks! Like I said above, I may make some of these available for trade so please let me know if you'd be interested in those.

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  4. Good stuff! I think my wife created a Nextdoor account a while back.. I'll have to bug her to give me the login info and keep an eye out for cards.

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    1. It really is handy for getting info about stuff like power outages, for example, and lots of people post free stuff just hoping to get rid of it, like what I got here. So it doesn't take much effort to keep an eye on.

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  5. Very nice find. Super jealous of the Jam Session set. Those were really cool cards. I check my ND app at least once or twice a week. Never for free stuff though. It usually has to do with weirdos walking around stealing packages or lost pets.

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    1. Yeah, there's that too, of course, but it kind of depends on what your neighbors are like. Let me know if you want to trade for that Jam Session set!

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  6. I might have to try it. Sounds less rapey than Craigslist and Marketplace but I guess thats okay.

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    1. That's not a bad way to describe it! Though with your area I think all bets are off.

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  7. Never heard of it. Don't even use Facebook marketplace either. Too sketchy

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    1. I find this less sketchy because it's pretty much limited to your immediate area so it's easier to verify that someone's not a serial killer.

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